Zero to Sixty
by iminlaundry
Summary: Korra is having trouble navigating the vine issue in Republic City, but her newly budding friendship with Asami Sato manages to keep her grounded. She's surprised by how easily friendship comes to them, as well as other feelings...
1. Chapter 1

**Ch. Summary:**

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><p>Korra and Asami play a game of Pai Sho after bumping into each other in downtown Republic City.<p>

**Notes:**

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><p>I know in canon only 2 weeks passed between books 2 and 3, but for the sake of this story lets expand that to a little over a month between them.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

The late afternoon sun was coming in through Korra's open window along with an unusually cool breeze and the distant sounds of the bay crashing against Air Temple Island.

She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, fumbling with a Pai Sho piece and studying the board.

It had been a while since she'd played and it showed – she was loosing. Not by much, but loosing all the same.

"Hey, do you mind closing the window? I'm getting a little chilly." Asami asked, gesturing slightly with a nod of her head (she too was staring at the board in contemplation as usual; Korra had noticed after the first game they played together that Asami rarely ever took her eyes off it).

"Oh yeah, sorry. I like the cold so much sometimes I forget not everyone grew up around ice and snow."

Korra put her piece down on the spot she'd been eyeing, not caring so much that it probably wasn't the best move to be making.

The game would be over soon anyway.

Sure enough as soon as she slid off the bed to close the window she heard the clack of a Pai Sho tile against the board, and Asami's usual victory speech, "do you want to play again?"

"I'm up for it if you are" Korra responds, closing the window shutters and making a mental note to stop leaving the window open when Asami came to visit.

Korra had to suppress a grin because she knew, without needing an answer, that Asami would want to play again.

They hadn't been hanging out together for very long but Korra figured out pretty quickly that Asami was in love with the game.

"You know, you're pretty good at this - I mean, you didn't strike me as the Pai Sho type" Asami finished quickly, catching the look of mock hurt on Korra's face as she climbed back onto her bed.

"When I was living at the compound on the south pole I used to play sometimes with the White Lotus guards. It wasn't my first choice of _fun activity _but aside from them I had no one else to do anything with…"

Korra leaned forward to grab her next piece and stopped once she saw Asami's expression.

"…? What's wrong?"

"What do you mean you had no one else to do anything with?"

Korra was confused for a moment before realizing that she'd never spoken to Asami about her life on the compound.

They hadn't really been talking and hanging out for very long and it wasn't really something to begin a conversation with, at least Korra thought so.

"Yeahhhhh….I guess I never talked to you about that. Or anyone in Republic City, really."

Asami made her move, then looked intently back to Korra.

"Do you want to tell me? I'd like to hear it."

Korra couldn't help but smile. Asami really had a way about her that was so genuine it kind of surprised her.

To be honest, she wished she'd gotten over the initial awkwardness and gotten to know Asami way sooner than she did.

"Well…until I came here to Republic City I lived most of my life in a compound on the south pole with the other White Lotus members. Sometimes Katara and my parents would visit – when I was pretty young I actually remember my mom staying at the compound with me for a few months…"

Korra found herself trailing of, leaning back against the wall and fidgeting a little.

It wasn't that she hated talking about her time at the compound but it was giving her a strange feeling.

Kind of a lonely feeling.

Asami grabbed the edges of the Pai Sho board and gestured at the table by Korra's bed. "Do you mind if I put this away for now?"

"You don't want to play still? It's getting kind of late - "

"It's fine, I think three games is plenty. I want to hear your story! I can't believe you were alone like that for so long."

"Well, I don't know about _alone, _I mean I had Naga - "

"No Korra, I meant alone like….friends. You didn't have anyone your age to be with?"

Korra turned away a bit, not wanting Asami to see the look she couldn't keep off her face.

No, she didn't have anyone her age. No friends, no play, just practice.

"Well, aside from the one or two times Desna and Eska visited me with Unalaq, yeah I was alone. And I didn't really think of Desna or Eska as _friends. _They're weird now but when we were kids it was worse. They never wanted to do _anything_, especially waterbend for fun. Said it was a waste and a mockery of their gifts, or something. It's hard to remember."

It wasn't hard to remember – Korra remembered all the times she'd tried to sneak out of the compound and all the lonely days wishing she had a friend.

It got better once she met Naga, but a polar bear dog's love can only go so far.

What she really wanted was to make a connection with someone – _anyone_ who wasn't some White Lotus guard assigned to train and protect her.

"Oh Korra, that's really awful. You must have been pretty lonely."

Korra felt a swift sting of regret. She was amazed that not only did Asami not hold the whole Mako debacle over her head, but she sincerely wanted to befriend her.

_Yeah, I really should have tried talking to her sooner._

"I guess it was pretty lonely, but I always had my bending. I was always practicing, always pushing myself. Not to mention I became so used to being alone that as I got older it became less of a problem. To be honest though…"

Korra stole a glance at Asami and saw she was still looking at her with that expression of pity that made her shift her gaze again.

"I feel like if I had to go back to that life now, it would be unbearably lonely."

Asami was silent momentarily and the only sounds were that of Meelo and Ikki causing a ruckus in the hallway.

Korra didn't know what to say, and dearly hoped Asami would say something to lighten the atmosphere. She hoped she didn't come across like she wanted a pity parade.

_Maybe this wasn't the right thing to talk about now…_

"You know Korra" Asami said softly, "I don't think you'd ever have to worry about that. It'd take a _lot_ of White Lotus guards to drag you back there. Plus, I'd fight 'em off with you."

Before Korra had a chance to respond Asami slid off the bed, stretching and yawning slightly.

"You're right, it is getting late. I should get home; I still have work to do. We should do this again tomorrow though, I'll most likely be done with work before nighttime. You should pick me up. If you're not busy, of course."

"Oh? Yeah, that sounds great actually. All I'm doing is trying to get rid of those stupid vines, I could use a break. I'll come get you after dinner."

"Great. It's a plan. See you tomorrow Korra."

After Korra had walked Asami out (with Meelo's "help") she stood outside and watched her ride her moped out to the docks to catch the ferry back to the city.

It was still chilly and the waves were picking up.

_I really should have gotten to know her sooner…_

"My parents used to play Pai Sho all the time" she'd said, dividing the tiles for their very first game, about two weeks prior.

"When I was a kid I remember them playing every night after dinner. Dinner, tea, Pai Sho, then back to work at home."

On that same day, Korra happened to bump into Asami while shopping downtown.

In the literal sense – she actually did bump into Asami, pretty hard, while shopping downtown.

Korra was browsing in an antique shop (she recognized the area where she'd first encountered the police in Republic City) when she rounded a shelf at the same time someone was coming from the opposite end and – well long story short they collided, causing the other person to drop the rolls of parchment they were carrying.

"Oh! I'm sorry - "

"No, I should have been - "

Their eyes met and Korra was more or less pleasantly surprised to see Asami Sato, who she'd been…well, kind of avoiding as of late.

Not out of any bad feelings of course – Korra was at a complete loss for how to go about initiating conversation with Asami after the whole Mako blunder.

She had been wanting to speak to Asami and apologize properly but none of her rehearsed speeches seemed right, and it was pretty easy to "distract" herself with the issue of the vines all over the city.

Turns out conversation came pretty easily! Asami asked what Korra was shopping for (a new Pai Sho set for Jinora) and it all pretty much flowed from there.

"Oh, Jinora plays Pai Sho? I'm somewhat of a Pai Sho buff myself" Asami said, bundling the newly retrieved scrolls in her arms.

"Do you…need some help picking one out? I'm not really up to anything right now and I've _kinda _been wanting to talk to you."

"Oh yeah, sure. To tell the truth I don't really know much about what to look for in a Pai Sho set. And... I've been wanting to talk to you too."

Korra's more-or-less pleasure of running into Asami quickly became a definite blessing – she was a huge help in looking for Jinora's gift.

Korra had played a bit of Pai Sho (emphasis on the _bit_ part) when she was growing up on the compound in the south pole, but she never really cared about the finer details in buying a board and pieces.

"See, something like this" Asami mentioned, pointing to a thick, heavy looking Pai Sho set with grooves set in the board to hold tiles,"is really all you're going to find in an antique store. It's really more of a decoration piece or conversation starter than something you'd play with, unless you're really delicate with it….do you think Jinora would want something a little more modern?"

To be honest Korra didn't really think about that.

"Um….well I mean, Tenzin's set is pretty similar to this one, and I know he doesn't like her using it all the time…uhhh…."

"How about a portable set? I know a store that sells them pretty cheap if you have the time to head out."

Korra agreed, they found the perfect set (well, really Asami found the perfect set and Korra thanked her profusely for the insight) and ended up starting their own game at the central park in Republic City once Korra mentioned how she hadn't played Pai Sho in a long time but felt too embarrassed to ask Jinora to play with her.

"My father especially loved Pai Sho. So, naturally, he taught m to play pretty young."

Asami divvied up the final tiles and looked at Korra with a smile.

"So, who goes first?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch. Summary:**

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><p>The vine issue in the city gets personal for Asami<p>

**Notes:**

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><p>I'm still in need of a beta reader...<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

"So was he slimy? Did he smell bad? _I _ had to stay in the house so _I _didn't get to see him good but he _looked _like he'd be slimy - "

"Meelo! For the last time, no, my uncle Unalaq did _not _turn into a slimy spirit monster. Just a regular one. Now will you please leave me alone, I'm trying to meditate."

"No you're not. You're getting up and moving around. You're not supposed to move around when you're meditating."

Korra sighed and opened her eyes to shoot Meelo a pretty convincing you'd-better-leave-me-alone-or-else look, which of course didn't phase him.

The torrent of questions was unleashed. Again.

She knew Meelo was just curious and wanted to hang out with her but spirits it took a lot of patience to not just airbend him right back in the house.

Even if she had ten more hands she still wouldn't be able to count on her fingers how many questions he'd had asked her about her vanquishing Unalaq.

At first it was pretty flattering and fun; it's pretty cool to brag about manhandling a spirit monster, but enough was enough days ago.

"Meelo, kid, you're driving me nuts."

"You're welcome for that!"

Okay, patience worn thin.

Before Korra could earthbend Meelo across the island, Bumi (and Bumju) caught her eye walking up the hill towards the meditation pavilion.

Instantly her spirits lifted – Meelo adored Bumi and was infatuated with Bumju; the both of them together was definitely enough to get him off her hands.

"Oh hey! Bumi! What's up?"

Korra tried to give Bumi her best please-save-me-this-kid-is-driving-me-up-the-wall look from over Meelo's shoulder.

"Oh hey, Bumi! Right on time, just the guy I wanted to see!"

Bumi walked up to them with a quizzical look on his face, clearly directed at Korra.

"Oh. Hey there, kiddos. Just came by to say you got a phone call. Some official _avatar _business."

Korra knew full well this "avatar business" Bumi spoke of was probably something to do with the vines, but really at that moment it couldn't have mattered less.

__Well, really it's moving from one annoyance to another but hey….__

Korra sat up and dusted her pants off as Meelo ran over to Bumi and made grabby hands at Bumju.

"Can I hold him uncle Bumi? I won't squeeze him."

"Well that's not up to me, it's up to Bumju! And he says no."

"That's not fair!"

"No, whats not fair is you squeezing poor Bumju to death. How can he trust you again?"

With a derisive snort Meelo conjured up an air scooter and ran a ring around Bumi before taking off and sticking his tongue out at Korra and his uncle.

"That kid is nuts! Cute as a button, though" Bumi said, stroking Bumju behind the ears.

"He reminds me of me as a kid. Not as cute of course, but still there's family resemblance."

"Uh huh. So, where's the avatar needed for some avatar business?"

Bumi opened his mouth to say something then paused.

"Hm."

"Hm?"

"Yeah, hm. I forgot."

Korra was beyond exasperated.

"Okayyyy….well…that doesn't help me much. Or at all."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, kid. I'm getting forgetful in my old age!"

Bumi said this with a grin and a sweeping gesture Korra thought was supposed to be humorous but the only thing running through her mind was president Raiko dragging her over coals about being absent from the city's problems.

Ever since the vines first burst into the scene at Republic City everyone turned to Raiko for answers, which of course he had none of, so he dumped the entirety of the situation on Korra.

But, to honest, she did have a hand in causing the problem, and she _was _the avatar.

Originally she thought she'd be done with them in days; how much trouble can some vines be?

__Lots__of trouble as she soon found out. Nothing was working – firebending, trying to cut the vines at the root, trying to unearth them – Korra was at a complete and utter loss and therefore so was Raiko.

_What a pain…._

Korra thanked Bumi for his "help" and headed back to the house. She'd grab her glider and head over to Raiko's office, as she was pretty sure he was the one who called (as far as she knew not everyone in the city had Tenzin's phone number).

The day was nice so she'd at least be able to enjoy the fly over before facing Raiko's transparent anger.

Reaching the house she took off her shoes (as Pema had let her know on multiple occasions how often she forgot to do so) and headed for her room, stepping over one of Meelo's lemurs which was asleep in the hallway.

"Oh, Korra! Did Bumi tell you about your call? And can you please throw that lemur outside, the last thing I need is more animal hair coating this house…."

"Hey Pema. Yeah he….kinda told me" Korra said, picking up the lemur, which chattered and thrashed violently before flying further off into the house.

"_Auuugh_! I keep telling Meelo to keep those things out; I swear once one gets in it takes days to get it out." Pema started off down the hallway, presumably to start her days-long lemur extraction, and paused to look back at Korra with a confused expression.

"What do you mean he 'kind of' told you?"

"He just said that someone called about some avatar business. But he forgot who called."

Pema's look of confusion changed instantly to one of amusement.

"Really? How could he have forgotten, he was just here…well it was Asami Sato who called. Something about a vine…. I can't remember, sorry. I wish I could help more."

"No, no, that's great! Thanks Pema!"

"Thank__you __Korra for taking off your shoes."

Korra snagged her glider and stepped out, hoping to maybe catch Naga and give her a good scratch behind the ears before she left.

Naga was nowhere to be found (probably with Jinora), so she took off immediately for the city.

It would be fun to talk to Asami again, even if it was due to the vines.

The two of them had been hanging out pretty frequently lately; sometimes with Bolin but mostly just them.

Their main haunt was the racetracks – it was dead easy for Asami to get great seats, and there were even a few times when Korra watched Asami participate, just like last year when they met.

Asami kept asking Korra if she wanted to race, but that never really reached any fruition. As much as she hated to admit it it kind of embarrassed her how she was supposed to be the most powerful person in existence but couldn't drive to save her life.

She was looking forward to seeing Asami, but it was pretty tempting to take a bit of a detour and fly over the city.

Despite the huge heap of problems they were causing for her and everyone else in the city, the vines were actually pretty cool.

She liked the view of the city from above - all the buildings and vines wrapped up together looked so unique.

Jinora had told Korra before numerous times that she should just leave the vines be; obviously they weren't going anywhere, and why would she want to get rid of them anyway when they were where the spirits lived?

While Korra did have a bit….of an issue with "displacing" the spirits who lived there, the comment about them obviously not going anywhere irked her badly.

__If I can vanquish Unalaq and Vaatu I can pick some huge spirit weeds….or I should be able to anyway…__

As she approached Asami's backyard she saw she was already outside on the balcony in her room. She was sitting at a round tea table with her legs crossed, reading the newspaper.

She was wearing a brooch in her hair Korra hadn't seen before and it caught her eye instantly; Asami was so good at choosing things like that, like jewelry and makeup.

To be honest at first Korra thought it was kind of pointless to care about those things but that's just another thing that changed when she started to befriend Asami.

There had been a few times recently when she'd been out in the city and seen jewelry – bangles and whatnot and thought they looked nice but didn't really know if she could pull it off.

Truth be told Korra didn't really want to wear any of them herself, but she liked the thought of buying something like that for Asami.

Or more like she liked that thought if she had any idea of how to pick something like that out…

Korra swooped down and landed with a flourish, hoping Asami would notice (she'd been practicing this landing, it looked really cool) but she was still glued to her newspaper.

"Heyyyy Asami. I heard you called. Avatar stuff, and whatnot."

Asami glanced up and smiled at Korra (she was wearing a darker shade of lipstick today, too) and said she'd be ready to leave in just a minute.

"I guess Cabbage Corp is planning to unveil a new airship design…This is all very timely..."

"Timely?"

Korra propped her staff up against the railing and moved to take a seat next to Asami. Maybe they could catch a bite to eat later?

Noodles? Noodles sounded pretty good but it'd been a while since she'd had dumplings.

"Yeah. Turns out Future Industries has been hit by a bit of an issue. Or three issues. This morning when one of my engineers was doing inventory in one of our storehouses, and suddenly three huge vines sprouted up and tore through the roof."

Asami set down her newspaper and sighed deeply, massaging her temples.

Korra couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at this.

She knew Future Industries was struggling to get back on top after the whole Varrick debacle even though that was more or less sorted out.

That on top of property destruction via vines was such a double whammy she couldn't help but feel awful for Asami having to deal with so much.

"I know you've got a lot on your plate with this vine situation, and I know nothing you've been trying so far has worked, but I'd appreciate it so much if you can try and help me with this. I haven't been to see the damage yet but from what I was told it's pretty substantial."

Asami ran her fingers through her hair and checked her watch before yet another deep sigh.

"Well I haven't even dealt with this yet and I'm already feeling like I've been wrung dry. Do you want to get something to eat after this? There's this dumpling stand I've heard about from my attendant that I've been wanting to try. And I know I'm going to need some comfort food after this."

"You had me at dumplings, Asami."

Korra was trying hard to suppress the grin threatening to break out on her face. Despite the bad news she was pretty pleased she and Asami were on the same wavelength about the dumplings.

"Well alright…we should get going" Asami said, standing and straightening out her skirt. "I'm driving, do you want to come with me? I don't think your glider is built for two."

"No it could work; I could totally just hold you - "

"…?"

"Uh… ha! Haha! What am I even talking about? Now's not the time for….jokes…."

__What on Earth am I talking about!__

Asami raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly before beckoning Korra to get up and join her.

"As tempting as the offer sounds I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea for me to be flying above the city in a skirt, showing off my underwear to the populace. I'll drive."

Korra gulped and stood to join Asami, almost walking out and forgetting her glider.

__Okay, Vine Mode, Vine Mode….keep my mind on the vines, gotta figure out how to fix this….__

As they headed out of the Sato mansion and into the garages to start up Asami's car Korra couldn't help but think about holding Asami in her arms and flying around the city like a hero.

They drove off towards the Future Industries storehouses and still the image was stuck on repeat in her head with no signs of stopping.

__Seriously, what on Earth am I thinking…..__


End file.
